Congratulations to fellow, er, uh, protector of the middle class, Comrade - I mean - Minister Jojima. Yeah, that's it. As former head of the Japan Food Industry Workers' Union Council, you are eminently qualified to be Finance Minister of one of the world's greatest economies. If you do a really good job in creating a nice stimulus package that fully bankrupts Japan, we might even make you CEO of your own dot-org, so that you will never have to pay the taxes that you will be doubling by necessity. Forward!

5:28 am October 2, 2012

Hanshin Tiger Fan wrote:

Please explain how baseball player is finance minister. Does this mean that a cabinet minister will be player for the team? Maybe OK to be catcher but please not make first baseman

5:32 am October 2, 2012

schwartz györgy wrote:

Hanshin Tiger Fan-san: you so stupid. In the fair society that we creating, a Finance Minister could also be first baseman.

5:36 am October 2, 2012

Hanshin Tiger Fan wrote:

OK, very sorry, györgy-san. But if Finance Minister is playing baseball, maybe economy not being well gardened, so maybe no money to go to baseball game. That happening, maybe no baseball team. So anyway, what do we do?

5:41 am October 2, 2012

schwartz györgy wrote:

Hanshin Tiger Fan-san: I just had my people buy controlling interest in the companies that own teams in the J-League. Everything is now under control.

5:53 am October 2, 2012

Kobb Tyberius wrote:

Speaking as a baseball fan of many years, I really take exception to the announcement that the Hanshin Tigers has hired a 65 year old agronomist to be their catcher or first baseman. Look, I am over 90 years old, so I understand that sometimes young people don't really know what they're going to do in their careers, so they try this and that. But baseball is sacred, danggit! I'm of the old school, so for me, I want my first baseman to be lanky and long armed, and my catcher to be built squat and low to the ground, much like a fire plug. In my experience, agronomists tend to be hunchbacks - no, that's not the word - more bow-shaped, because they're stooping over to take soil samples. While that kind of build works well for archers, putting in a bow-shaped catcher is a good way to throw off your pitcher, thereby causing a loss of the double header. But hey, don't nobody listen to me, I'm just an old man. Duddn't matter that I'm a Hanshin Tigers season ticket holder, either.

5:59 am October 2, 2012

Mr. Azumi wrote:

Excuse, please. Wher can I apply for the job as catcher for the Hanshin Tiger team? I am only 50 years old - much younger than Jojima-san, and I think that I have a nice smile, too, because I used to be on TV.

6:00 am October 2, 2012

Kobb Tyberius wrote:

Azumi-san, if I was to meet you in an airport, how would I recognize you?

6:01 am October 2, 2012

schwartz györgy wrote:

Azumi, don't answer that question. I will make you head of a TV network that I have controlling interest in.

6:02 am October 2, 2012

Kobb Tyberius wrote:

györgy-san, would you kindly butt out. I'm only asking the gentleman to describe his physique.

6:03 am October 2, 2012

schwartz györgy wrote:

Kobb, I know you're trying to set up some kind of rival baseball league, but you'll never succeed.

6:04 am October 2, 2012

Kobb Tyberius wrote:

györgy-san, if I was to meet you in an airport, how would I recognize you?

6:07 am October 2, 2012

A Serious WSJ Reader wrote:

Dear WSJ, would you please stop these kinds of frivolous posting? I thought that the only acceptable postings were from Chinese 50 cent army posters in order to boost the page hits for the WSJ.

6:08 am October 2, 2012

Kobb Tyberius wrote:

Dear Serious WSJ Reader, you sound like a pretty smart feller, maybe I'd like to make you a pitcher. If I was to meet you in an airport, how would I recognize you?

6:09 am October 2, 2012

A Serious WSJ Reader wrote:

OK, I lied, I am not a "serious WSJ reader." I''m Hanshin Tiger Fan. I just felt lonely.

6:27 am October 2, 2012

JP Finance Minister wrote:

So you think that I cannot do job of finance minister and be player for Hanshin Tiger team? I will not only be Finance Minister, I will also simultaneously play catcher AND first baseman!

6:28 am October 2, 2012

Hanshin Tiger Fan wrote:

Sound like good player attitude

9:54 am October 2, 2012

OODA loop STAT wrote:

Senkaku Islands wrote:
.Japan today claims the Senkaku Isalnds based on this Treaty of Shimonoseki:

Article 1: China recognizes definitively the full and complete independence and autonomy of Korea, and, in consequence, the payment of tribute and the performance of ceremonies and formalities by Korea to China, that are in derogation of such independence and autonomy, shall wholly cease for the future.
Treaty of Shimonoseki

Articles 2 & 3: China cedes to Japan in perpetuity and full sovereignty of the Penghu group, Taiwan and the eastern portion of the bay of Liaodong Peninsula together with all fortifications, arsenals and public property.
Article 4: China agrees to pay to Japan as a war indemnity the sum of 200,000,000 Kuping taels
Article 5: China opens Shashih, Chungking, Soochow and Hangchow to Japan. Moreover, China is to grant Japan most-favored-nation treatment.

The treaty ended the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 as a clear victory for Japan. In this treaty, China recognized the independence of Korea and renounced any claims to that country. It also ceded the Liaodong Peninsula (then known to the Western press as Liaotung, now southern part of modern Liaoning province), and the islands of Taiwan (Formosa) and Penghu to Japan. China also paid Japan a war indemnity of 200 million Kuping taels, payable over seven years, and the signing of a commercial treaty similar to ones previously signed by China with various western powers in the aftermath of the First and Second Opium Wars. This commercial treaty confirmed the opening of various ports and rivers to Japanese trade. As a result of the Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895), China recognized the “full and complete independence and autonomy” of Joseon. In the next year Yeongeunmun was demolished leaving its two stone pillars.

The treaty ended the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 as a clear victory for Japan. In this treaty, China recognized the independence of Korea and renounced any claims to that country. It also ceded the Liaodong Peninsula (then known to the Western press as Liaotung, now southern part of modern Liaoning province), and the islands of Taiwan (Formosa) and Penghu to Japan. China also paid Japan a war indemnity of 200 million Kuping taels, payable over seven years, and the signing of a commercial treaty similar to ones previously signed by China with various western powers in the aftermath of the First and Second Opium Wars. This commercial treaty confirmed the opening of various ports and rivers to Japanese trade. As a result of the Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895), China recognized the “full and complete independence and autonomy” of Joseon. In the next year Yeongeunmun was demolished leaving its two stone pillars.

Another round of meaningless musical chairs in the Japanese cabinet. It doesn't matter where you come from, just as long as you can be a "team player". The bureaucrats wield all the real power anyway...

Under the Potsdam Declaration the islands in question belong to the US. Keep in mind, this is exactly what happened. Okinawa and the Senkaku's were transferred to the US after the war. Its only in 1972 that the islands in question were transferred from US to Japan under the Nixon administration.

And its only after that did the Chinese first make any claims to those islands.

Either way, the surrender of Japan was concluded with the San Francisco Peace Treaty. Potsdam Declaration never came into effect.

1:45 pm October 2, 2012

Anonymous wrote:

His only job is to host the G7 meeting. Won't be back after the election.
Potential military conflict with China is the main reason for delaying the election.
I can't wait to get rid of the DPJ. I mean, who voted for these commies?

2:06 pm October 2, 2012

Anonymous wrote:

DPJ is no good. Where did they take econ? In USSR?
Too dovish on China as well. The market misses the Koizumi reform era.

2:45 am October 3, 2012

To Tell the very Truth... wrote:

A classic in Japan ! Just a week or two before a very important meeting, they often appoint a newbie as a minister who just can't know what he will be talked about. So convenient ! There should be some international standards/laws to prevent such a crook.

11:33 am October 3, 2012

Anonymous wrote:

"DPJ is no good. Where did they take econ?"

They didn't. That's the problem. Weak on economy and weak on national security.
Their days are limited.

2:17 pm October 4, 2012

To Tell the very Truth.... wrote:

To Anonymous (11:33 am October 3, 2012) : you're too kind. In fact the Minshuto is bad at all. Don't forget their appointed members had to attend some "super-express-trainings" (in foreign countries !!!!!!!!) at the very begining of their term as ministers because they were so surprised to win the election and thus didn't know the know-how of the tasks they had to achieve. Pathetic ! Pathetic as hell !

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Japan Real Time is a newsy, concise guide to what works, what doesn’t and why in the one-time poster child for Asian development, as it struggles to keep pace with faster-growing neighbors while competing with Europe for Michelin-rated restaurants. Drawing on the expertise of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, the site provides an inside track on business, politics and lifestyle in Japan as it comes to terms with being overtaken by China as the world’s second-biggest economy. You can contact the editors at japanrealtime@wsj.com